San Jose, CA to Kansas City, MO in SUMMER

Hi. So my partner and i are planning to visit a friend in Kansas City for the 4th of July. She is actually off from July 1-4. my partner and i will file a vacation leave for a week. we will be driving in a 2015 Honda Civic EX.

my questions are,
1.) what hours are the best to travel/drive?
2.) would it be best to travel at night or is it okay to travel at daytime?
3.) which route is the best way to go?
4.) when should we take a break from driving to avoid over heating?
5.) what are the safety tips for to avoid blowing up the engine?

Almost None of That Matters

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

When you say that you are going to 'visit' a friend in Kansas City, the presumption is that you pan on returning to San Jose. That implies that this will be a round trip. If that's truly the case, then you will be spending seven days of your week's vacation just driving. That hardy seems to be worth it. It doesn't matter how many 'drivers' you have. It doesn't matter what time of day you drive. It doesn't matter what route you go. And you will wrap the car around a tree (at best) or an innocent bystander (worst case) from physical fatigue long before your engine overheats or blows up.

To be perfectly blunt about it, your proposed trip makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You would need something like a minimum of eleven to twelve days to make this trip safe and enjoyable. A week just doesn't cut it, even if you include the both weekend before you have to be back at work.

We all love the open road around here but as said above, your trip is not doable with the time you have if you want to spend time with your friends while staying safe. You either need to add as many days to your vacation as you actually wish to spend with your friends, or purchase plane tickets.

Worrying about all the wrong things

I'm very much in agreement that this is not a trip that makes sense in a week, and I think the questions you're asking indicate you don't quite understand what things you really need to be concerned about.

4.) when should we take a break from driving to avoid over heating?
5.) what are the safety tips for to avoid blowing up the engine?

It is virtually impossible to blow up the engine of a modern car that's been properly maintained. A properly maintained vehicle also never needs a break - it's a machine that is designed to work and it doesn't care how long it's been running.

Humans on the other hand do need a break. There are only so many hours a human can sit in a moving car (as a driver or a passenger) before their driving skills start to deteriorate due to fatigue. Numerous studies have shown that after about 10 hours in a car, a persons driving abilities start to resemble that of someone who is drunk - and crash rates also reflect that reality. That's why professional drivers are limited by law to driving no more than about 600 miles in a day (and again, time sitting in a passenger seat counts the same as time in the drivers seat).

1.) what hours are the best to travel/drive? 2.) would it be best to travel at night or is it okay to travel at daytime? 3.) which route is the best way to go?

Virtually every road in the US is perfectly safe to drive at day or night - again, it's the human factor that determines what ends up being safe.

The safest hours to drive are the hours that your body is already expecting to be awake. For the vast majority of people, that means driving during daylight hours. There's also the practical reality that hotels have check-in and check-out times that make it difficult to sleep in the middle of the day on a roadtrip.

my partner and i will file a vacation leave for a week

By the shortest possible route, you're looking at nearly 1900 miles to get from San Jose to Kansas City - which as Buck indicated means it would be strongly recommended that you take 3.5 days each way for this trip. That means you need a full week just to cover the miles - and that wouldn't leave you any time at all to visit your friend!

You really only have 2 options, either take several more days off, or look for other transportation options to get to KC. Driving there and back with just a week off just doesn't make sense.

The first two responders said it best. Too many miles in too few days. My husband and I regularly make a similar trip (San Diego to mid-Missouri) in the summer. It is a 3 day trip, minimum, 4 days make it more pleasant. That means a whole 6-8 days are being used just to travel. When we want to go for just a week, we fly and rent a car on the other end. When you start adding up gasoline, motels, restaurants and other prices, the airfare and car rental looks pretty good.

Some experiences that I've had:

1. I drove with 3 friends one way from NE MO to California. We did not stop overnight. Each of us took 2 hour shifts in driving. When it was our turn in the back seat, we were supposed to sleep. However, the body clock did not always want to sleep, and when we did, it was not a restful sleep. It is a wonder we actually made it across country. Fact learned: overnights in a motel needed.

2. Hubby and I decided to drive back to MO driving only at night. For him, this worked. He was on night shift at work and his body was awake. Mine was not. Fact learned: motels are not set up for someone coming in at 8 am and departing at 8 pm, just the opposite. Drive during the daytime.

3. If your car is well taken care of, it should neither overheat or blow up on you. If you find that this trip can be a reality because you've gotten a few extra days leave, get your car to a trusted mechanic and have him do a serious trip check: hoses, belts, tires, fluids, safety lights. Fix anything that needs to be fixed because you don't want to have that looming over your head while you're trying to cross country. Want more peace of mind? Get a roadside assistance plan, such as the one offered by AAA.

4. Travel with maps. Paper maps. Real ones, not the electronic kind that lives in your phone or a separate unit. An atlas would be great. Once again, though, only if you can get 11-12 days to make this trip.